Deeply Toasted Coconut Praline Paste
Silky smooth golden coconut caramel paste
Published: April 29th, 2020 | Last Updated: July 24th, 2021
This Deeply Toasted Coconut Praline Paste recipe has a deep coconut taste and a little salty punch. Use it in any place where you would use hazelnut or almond praline paste. It works really well as a topping to ice cream (it sets on contact!), or blended into a mousse, hot chocolate, cake, pastry cream or as a layer in a bonbon. Many praline recipes will tell you to pour the caramel over the nuts, allow that to set, then break it to pieces and blend. The issue with this is that the nuts will continue to cook in the caramel and if the caramel is burnt, it would make the entire mixture unusable. This is time consuming and costly. Nuts aren't cheap! Here, we make the caramel and bake the coconut separately. This allows us to have more control over how roasted the coconut is and how deep the caramel is. If the caramel accidentally burns, that's ok because we've kept them separate and can try again (remaking a caramel is faster and cheaper than having to roast another batch of nuts). This is how we make praline every time because it just works so well!
Ingredients
Coconut Praline Paste (870g):
- 600g coconut flakes
- 250g superfine/caster sugar
- 10g salt
- 10g confectioners sugar
Method
Toast the Coconut
- Scatter the coconut shavings into a shallow layer and bake in 160°C oven for 15-20 until browned
Make the Caramel Shards
- Prepare silicone mat or baking paper in a large oven tray. We will be using this to pour and spread the caramel over.
- Make a dry caramel: Using a heavy bottomed wide skillet, on medium-high heat, sprinkle roughly a third of the sugar into the skillet. Shake the pan to spread the sugar around. The sugar will start to melt and caramelise around the edges. Once the sugar begins to brown, add more sugar and swirl the pan to incorporate it. Once it's incorporated, keep repeating the process of adding sugar until it is all incorporated. Once all the sugar is dissolved, and the caramel is amber brown, pour it onto the prepared silicone mat or baking sheet. Carefully tilt the pan to spread the caramel into a thin sheet. Allow to cool completely.
- Break the sheet into smaller pieces. We like to use a rolling pin and bash the caramel sheet into large shards. Then wrap the pieces up in the silicone mat or baking paper and continue to bash lightly with the rolling pin until the pieces are smaller.
Make the Paste
- In a food processor, add the toasted coconut, caramel shards, salt and icing sugar. Blend until it forms a smooth paste. It will start off with a dry like texture like cookie dough. Occasionally, scrape down the sides of the food processor to ensure everything is blended evenly. As the pieces get smaller and the paste heats up, the oils of the coconut will release and make the mixture super smooth. Once a smooth paste is formed, use immediately, or transfer it to a container for storage.
Tips and advice:
- The mixture will be solid at room temperature. White deposits of solid coconut oil may appear on the surface (don’t be alarmed, it’s not mold). To use it, reheat in the microwave in 10 second bursts until smooth.
- It behaves just like a choc-top on ice cream! Pour it over something cold and watch it magically set.
- If scaling this recipe down, be sure to make at least 400g. Any less and it will be harder for the mixture to catch and form a paste in the food processor.
Special Equipment
- Food Processor. A bullet blender also works.
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